Night Terrors?
by Gilly.Flowers
Summary: Pale eyes on the walls follow her as she poured herself a generous helping - catching a glimpse of the shrouded figure in the doorway out of the kitchen - …Maybe it 'began' after she'd sucked him off. - He almost offered to walk her back to her room, but the curt wave she threw over her shoulder and her ducked head told him he'd better not. - "I think you do dream."


**A.N. BARNALIA! Sorry for the badness, I've been practising my Barnabas. Enjoy and review and such things of the like, my sweets! -Gillies**

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing, sorry dolls. **_

_**P.s. I know 'Night Terrors' is a pretty crappy name, but I couldn't think of a better one. ~shrugs~ Apologies! **_

* * *

The entirety of the Collins' manor was drenched in darkness and blue shadows, creating monsters to lurk and perhaps bite little children, had there been any awake to be lurked or bitten. The paintings of long dead, significant people casted lonesome frowns and judgmental eyes down onto the empty floors, and Julia wondered sardonically if it was the night or the alcohol that made the pale eyes on the walls follow her as she poured herself a generous helping of her best friend, having been lucky enough to find a bottle of company in the high kitchen cupboards.

A small puddle of bourbon collected on the glass tray from her clumsy dumping, and she sucked in a brash breath.

"Oh fuck," What a despicable, disgraceful, unholy, unwarranted... What a waste! A brief contemplation of dragging her tongue across the soaked wood made her snort at how desperate she's became for drink lately. As if she needed it, she knew she was already as '_shittered_' as one could get.

"Doctor Hoffman, what are you doing awake this late – forgive me, of course I meant why so _early_? My dear, it's nearly sunrise."

Julia whipped around on wobbly legs, just barely catching a glimpse of the shrouded figure in the doorway out of the kitchen, before she was stumbling over something nonexistent. Firm hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her against a stiff jacket, and her glass flew out of her grasp to shatter across the ancient tiled floor. Julia stared blankly at her empty palm, letting the body before her support all her deadweight, as her hazed mind continued to process that happiness was no longer there.

"Are you alright?" The chest she was flush against rumbled, drawing her attention up to the white face of her savior.

_Ugggh._

Julia wretched herself out of his arms, stepped back and leant heavily against the counter. "I'm fine." She spat, lifting a hand to brush away orange from her clumsily frowning brow. "So how'd y'know I was in here, Barna-boso?"

Barnabas smiled smugly, folding his hands together behind his back. She didn't know exactly when it'd happened, but the two of them had started a competition to see who could tease the other more, and she enjoyed his seducing attempts even though every look he sent at that bug-eyed nanny reprimanded her that she wasn't ever actually going to get anything other than a relatively innocent relationship.

…Maybe it 'began' after she'd sucked him off.

"I am a vampire," For once he boasted, flicking his gaze back and forth between her laughing, brown eyes, "Your blood…It smells prominently of booze." She liked how he used such modern words. She liked even more that she was the only one he did use such modern words too when he talked to her.

A smirk flickered across her lips, and she squinted up at him through the dark.

"Might I ask why you are awake? Are you afflicted with night terrors like Miss Victoria?"

Julia giggle-snorted a laugh, her eyebrows shooting up as she planted her hands down on either side of her, fingers spread out on the counter.

"Oh, do you creep around at night and watch your 'one true love' as she sleeps?" Julia mocked, snickering as he lowered his eyes and scoffed his foot like a 200 year old child; she caught him. "Honestly Barnabas, you old pervert."

"It is not a common occurrence, _Hoffman_, but I should think you are changing the subject." Barnabas retaliated; even as he 'straightened her out' he managed to sound sweet and playful.

"I don't dream anymore Barnabas, and I hardly ever sleep." Julia twisted around then, to pour herself another glass of liquid brown sanctuary, feeling uneasy now that the light was on solely her even though her voice suggested the opposite. She'd gotten fairly well at that.

Her slender shoulder lifted and dropped underneath her wrinkled day dress, as if she heard the 'why?' question formulating in his head.

"Now, Mr. Collins," She turned back, this time sure to go slower this time 'round, and she narrowed her eyes impishly up at him. He knew the conversation was coming to an end, and didn't dare bring up her insomnia again - at least not for tonight. "We have an appointment in a couple of the days, around 6-ish or somethin'… I'll see you then, love."

He almost offered to walk her back to her room, but the curt wave she threw over her shoulder and her ducked head told him he'd better not.

* * *

"_Scooby doo, where are you?!_"

Barnabas stared in slight contempt at the small television set, watching a scruffy character holler for his dog. By now it wasn't the idea of TV that baffled him, he was well over that as Dr. Hoffman had done a wondrous job explaining it to him; but the stupidity of the 'cartoons' displayed was just so… Was this really entertainment nowadays? How did David endure this day in and day out?

"I like it," Julia said from behind his shoulder, folding and unfolding her humorously large glasses. He must have said something without realizing it. He heard her walking away. "Besides, it's not made for the amusement of a vampire twenty _decades_ old, Barnabas."

Barnabas flexed his arm, dropping his gaze from the mind-numbing enrapture of the television to the uv cord pumping fresh blood into his white body, drifting off to fantasize about mortality.

Once he was human again, he and his Josette – err, Victoria – will be able to live and grow old together, far away from Angelique and her wretched curse. After two centuries of night he will finally be able to sit in the sun beside someone he loved, without burning like a comet, or share a dinner meal of human food like everyone else around him; the blood in his veins would not be stolen; Victoria wouldn't be afraid of him. The normality he's been carving will finally be restored, because of the ingenious mind of Doctor Hoffman.

Julia looked over her shoulder to look at him for a brief second before turning back to whatever it was she was doing behind him, as if she'd sensed where his thoughts were straying to and wishing to reprimand him. She was not Josette/Victoria.

"I think you do dream." He muttered abruptly, refusing to look over his shoulder when he heard a scuffle of heels on the floor behind him; refusing to acknowledge that she and her odd confession (of a sort) in the near past had been churning in his head, constantly making him set aside the thoughts of humanity to consider and analyze. Being as old as he was, and of course if one spent as much time as he did in a coffin 6 feet under, one would become accustomed to passing time by. "Everybody dreams."

Julia straightened up from tapping on the glass tanks of blood, her brow creased and her lips slightly parted in shock. Feeling a little uneasy, she crossed her arms, then uncrossed them, then blinked. Images of the last conversation they'd shared flashed like a light bulb through her head, and Julia nearly swear aloud when she realized she said something she wouldn't have to anyone else. Holding in vile words and defeated sighs, Julia silently scolded the man for knowing more about her than she would care to admit.

Her surprise dropped, her face solidifying into stony indifference, and she shrugged, walking over to his side, looking down her nose at him. She ignored the scowling _'if it weren't for you meddling kids...'_ as Scooby Doo and the gang caught who ever the hell was scaring and plotting for discord on the TV, licking her dry lips as she contemplated the vampire sitting rim-rod straight on her patient table.

"But… I suspect you've ceased to remember them, doctor." He concluded, turning his head from the fuzzy credits to see her reaction – or rather, her lack thereof.

Julia drew a breath to reply.


End file.
